The perishables market requires very high quality transportation. To achieve such very high quality, a certain number of requirements must be satisfied. In particular storage units must be used so as to achieve high-performance transportation that guarantees continuity in the "cold chain". The perishables market increasingly uses thermal protection because of regulatory constraints or of technical constraints such as pre-refrigerating certain fruits and vegetables. The transportation must therefore be performed by means of a vehicle that satisfies the technical standards with respect to maintaining the storage unit at a constant temperature, and with respect to the characteristics of the refrigerating set.
In the state of the art, the continuity of the cold chain is guaranteed by installing and using manual-type electrical connectors. Such manual electrical connectors are disposed in part on the units and in part on the bed of the transportation means or on the stationary bed for storing the storage units.
A major drawback of prior art electrical connectors is that they must be connected and disconnected manually, and there is therefore a considerable risk that the electrical connectors might be torn off during loading and/or unloading of the storage units.
Another major drawback of prior art manual electrical connectors is that they lack flexibility, and that time is lost during each handling operation.
Furthermore, it is well known that any manual operation involving electrical connectors presents a major risk for the people performing the operation.